I'm a foreigner and have a question regarding my GPA and LSAC grade conversion? Forum

[tomhanks]

I'm new to this forum, so please correct me if I violated anything or did something wrong ..

I am 22 years old and live in a small-ish, rather "insignificant" country in Europe (I'd rather not specify which one), so the odds of any Americans being familiar with our school/grading systems are quite slim. This October, I'm entering my last year of law school (it's a 4 year program in my home country), but would like to persue a JD (not LLM) in the US (interested in T14) after I gradute. I want to keep this short, so I'd rather not go into detail on why I decided to do this, but know that I did my research and am aware of the requisites, risks, opportunities, etc.

I'm in the top 5% of my class (generation here) and have obtained a prefect GPA in all three years of studying and am planning to do the same this year. While grading works differently here, I'm sure my grades could be somewhat equivalent to a 4.0 in the US.

My questions concerns the LSAC grade conversion and how much GPA actually actually affects my chances of admission. I understand the basics of how LSAC converts grades (I would very much like to get a "superb"), though I can't help but think that the conversion is a bit vague. What does superb or highest passing grade actually mean on the application and how important is it? I've read somewhere that international GPA does not matter at all .. Is that true? I've put a tremendous effort into getting the grades I did and I would like to think they will matter in admission process. Will law schools even be able to see my grades? Also, how will a LSAC converted GPA affect chances of getting a merit scholarship?

[freekick]

I'm new to this forum, so please correct me if I violated anything or did something wrong ..

I am 22 years old and live in a small-ish, rather "insignificant" country in Europe (I'd rather not specify which one), so the odds of any Americans being familiar with our school/grading systems are quite slim. This October, I'm entering my last year of law school (it's a 4 year program in my home country), but would like to persue a JD (not LLM) in the US (interested in T14) after I gradute. I want to keep this short, so I'd rather not go into detail on why I decided to do this, but know that I did my research and am aware of the requisites, risks, opportunities, etc.

I'm in the top 5% of my class (generation here) and have obtained a prefect GPA in all three years of studying and am planning to do the same this year. While grading works differently here, I'm sure my grades could be somewhat equivalent to a 4.0 in the US.

My questions concerns the LSAC grade conversion and how much GPA actually actually affects my chance of admission. I understand the basics of how LSAC converts grades (I would very much like to get a "superb"), though I can't help but think that the conversion is a bit vague. What does superb or highest passing grade actually mean on the application and how important is it? I've read somewhere that international GPA does not matter at all .. Is that true? I've put a tremendous effort into getting the grades I did and I would like to think they will matter in admission process. Will law schools even be able to see my grades? Also, how will a LSAC converted GPA affect chances of getting a merit scholarship?

Even if you get the superior conversion/rating from LSAC, it would work more as a necessary condition than a boost. You should assume that your LSAT will dictate your admission plus scholarship chances. It is a numbers game and you have only one to play with (LSAT). Get the highest score you can and roll the dice. Forget about your stellar UG record in your country. It doesn't really matter coz it doesn't help the GPA medians. It may help but only at the margins.